The invention relates to a terminal carrier chipper for chipping a terminal carrier that couples a plurality of terminals in concatenation during the process of fabricating a wire harness used in electrical circuits.
In fabricating a wire harness, the process of connecting a conductor to a terminal involves the pressing of a beltlike metal plate as shown in FIG. 8. More specifically, a concatenated terminal "c" in which a plurality of terminals "a" are coupled to a terminal carrier "b" at a predetermined interval is formed, and conductors are connected to the respective terminals "a" continuously while supplying the concatenated terminal "c" during the process of crimping the respective terminals with the conductors. Therefore, the terminals "a" are separated from the terminal carrier "b", and at the same time, the terminal carrier "b" is cut every terminal "a" and the cut terminal carrier is discharged.
The terminal carrier chipper is a device for chipping the terminal carrier "b" from which the terminals "a" have been separated. Conventionally, in order to prevent the chipped terminal carrier "b" from scattering, the terminal carrier "b" is taken out while in beltlike form, i.e., without being cut into individual chips during the process of crimping terminals "a" with conductors, and such terminal carrier "b" is chipped and collected using a terminal carrier chipper K such as shown in FIG. 9 at a separate place.
The terminal chipper K includes: a sliding blade drive section "d" that is reciprocated by a solenoid or a hydraulic cylinder; a sliding blade "e" coupled to the sliding blade drive section "d"; an inverted C-shaped fixed blade "f"; and a sliding guide plate "g". A chip box "h" is provided below the sliding guide plate "g" so that chips into which the terminal carrier "b" has been transformed can be collected therein.
The terminal carrier "b" is supplied to a square hole "i" defined by the inverted C-shaped fixed blade f and the sliding blade "e". The terminal carrier "b" is chipped by reciprocating the sliding blade "e" in directions indicated by arrows by the sliding blade drive section "d".
When the sliding blade "e" of the terminal carrier chipper K is driven, the chipper K is subjected to such vibration and noise as to move the chipper due to large differences between on-load and no-load conditions. The use of a solenoid is also disadvantageous in that timers and relays are involved in electrical circuits and that electrical noise may affect the surroundings.